A small crowd of Altairian office workers and service drones watched with interest as I completed my parabola and started bouncing down the corbomite reinforced walkway.

During my brief time aloft, I reflected that distractions of this sort always come at precisely the wrong moment. Why now, for example, just as I was within minutes of pulling off the wildest stunt ever attempted by a junior field agent in the entire history of the Interplanetary Corps? Six months on this backward planet, dining on chloropaste and blue fungus three times a day, babysitting a five hundred pound crustacean, night after night in the laboratory laughing at Dr. Zoolick's moronic biped jokes, and just as I was about to spring my little surprise, Zagnor decides to play hide and seek on MY launch platform!

And now, of course, I had to beat Zrotif back to the ship. If he found out I had the diplomat's daughter locked in my E.L.V. pod, all hell would break loose. Still it could have been worse. At least he threw me in the right direction.